Category Archives:

Settlers/Colonists

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had assured that the Jewish democratic state law would not infringe on the rights of its non-Jewish citizens, but two days later his Likud party introduced a Knesset bill to ban the Palestinian flag from protests, deport Palestinians to Gaza, and strip Palestinian citizens of their citizenship or residency, and refuse to return remains of the deceased, in cases of “incitement.”

Until Operation Protective Edge, most of the “messaging” regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, certainly that which broke through the mainstream media, came from the Israeli side. That now has changed. Hamas not only confronted the Israeli Occupation but has also seized the political initiative from it. In stark contrast to Abbas, who has declared security cooperation with Israel to be “sacred” and who passively allows Israel to maintain its massive matrix of Israeli highways in the occupied territories spelling the end of the two-state solution, Hamas has sent a clear and forceful message to Israel: We won’t submit even if you kill us. Deal with us justly – or disappear.

After months of unremitting tensions in the West Bank, another Palestinian youth was killed in a run of protests Friday near the settlement of Psagot outside of Ramallah. The funeral for Mohammed al-Qadary, 19, was held Saturday following noon prayers. Afterword mourners scrambled up a hillside cut with terraces for yet another round of clashes […]

Israel is using the pretense of Palestine’s new unity government to do what it always does, steal more Palestinian land and expand the Jewish only settlements. Predictably, they’re framing this next expansion project as “part of the reaction efforts”. The Construction and Housing Ministry issued tenders for almost 1500 housing units in the West Bank […]

Watch live streaming video from washingtoninstitute at livestream.com Martin Indyk spoke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy yesterday and placed most of the blame on the Israelis for the breakdown in talks and echoed Palestinian frustration. He said in essence that the Israelis aren’t serious about negotiations. They can’t even stop settlements for three […]

Israeli settlers release wild pigs on Palestinian farms IMEMC 21 Apr by Chris Carlson — Palestinian farmers in the Salfit district appealed all to Palestinian and international bodies to stop the continued destruction of their crops caused by the Israeli pigs [wild boars] in the district. Farmers said, “We have encountered heavy losses in our […]

Most land Israel sold for new homes in 2014 in West Bank or East Jerusalem Haaretz 25 mar by Nimrod Bousso — The Israel Lands Authority published tenders for land to build some 3,050 residential units in the first quarter but only 45 units are in the center of the country and 55% are in […]

Israel approves 186 new East Jerusalem homes AFP 19 Mar — Israel moved forward Wednesday with plans to build another 186 new homes in East Jerusalem, a city councillor told AFP. The plans would see construction of 40 new homes in Pisgat Zeev and 146 in Har Homa. This announcement comes as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said […]

The annual policy conference for the premier Israel lobby group earlier this month featured lip-service to the two-state solution, an indication of how a once-taboo idea has become the dominant model for ending the Israel/Palestine conflict. “We have worked for the day when a Jewish state of Israel is living in peace and security with […]

On Friday around one thousand Palestinian and Israeli activists protested in the West Bank city of Hebron to reopen a central downtown street twenty years after it was first closed by the Israeli military. The Open Shuhada Street demonstration began at a mosque near the entrance of the former hub of Palestinian economic activity, what […]

The Institute for Middle East Understanding has compiled a “Facts on the Ground Peace Index” to track Israeli actions on the ground since new talks were announced over the summer. For Volume I see here. For Volume II see here. For Volume III, click here. For Volume IV, see here. And for Volume V, click here. Covering Period: January 2, 2014 to February […]

An anonymous “well-placed official” in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office set off a brouhaha in Zionist politics the other day by telling journalists he would insist that settlers left on the Palestinian side in a potential division of the West Bank have the option of choosing to remain in their homes and live under Palestinian […]

Today the Yesha Council, which is the regional representative of the West Bank settlements, and other right wing organizations, opened an aggressive campaign against U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, according to the Israeli news site, Walla (Hebrew). The campaign is reported to be a reaction to fears among the settler community that the current peace […]

Israeli-American Orit Arfa has followed up her Miley Cyrus pro-settler anthem (parody?) “Jews Can’t Stop” with “Gaza Wrecking Ball.” Filmed in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, a pantsless Arfa portrays an uprooted Gaza settler knocking rubble from a demolished house, a pantsless Israeli Defense Forces soldier, and a pantsless Palestinian sporting a bra-top made from […]

Ariel Sharon was once opposed to the building of a separation barrier in the West Bank. The idea of constructing a physical wall to separate West Bank Palestinians from Israeli Jews had long percolated in Israeli political circles, but Sharon was fearful that a barrier would become a permanent border, scuttling his dream of a […]

There will undoubtably be many proposals in Israel on the best way to memorialize Ariel Sharon. Yesterday Israeli military spokesperson Peter Lerner tweeted that Israel will name a mammoth new IDF training base in the Negev after Sharon. While fitting, it is hard to argue with Knesset member Moti Yogev who says Israel should construct a […]

Major Israeli financial institutions woke up to the news today that a Dutch pension fund has pulled out its investments because of the banks’ involvement in the occupied West Bank. The move, first reported by Haaretz‘s Barak Ravid, means that tens of millions of euros from the fund would be pulled out from five Israeli […]

Situated a short walk outside of Jerusalem’s stone walls is the excavation site for the biblical city of Jewish kings. The dig enfolds into a safari experience for the “City of David.” Visitors can take a guided tour, as I did, to explore the mystic past that today falls past the Green Line. Other options […]

“This life as a simple citizen and laborer has its benefits not only for the person himself but perhaps also for his country. After all, there is room for only one Prime Minister, but for those who make the desert bloom there is room for hundreds, thousands and even millions” – David Ben Gurion, 1954 […]

Two weeks ago Prime Minister Netanyahu announced then quickly cancelled an order to build 20,000 new settlement units. He had angered American officials, pressed their limits, and then tabled Israeli expansion into the West Bank when it seemed the negotiations process was on the line. But today Peace Now announced Netanyahu is moving forward with […]

While Israel’s right-wing Economy Minister was telling American audiences that the occupation doesn’t exist, a Palestinian coordinator for the district of Bethlehem was preparing to utter statements of a much different sort. On November 19th, the coordinator, Raed Samarra, joined three others–two Palestinians from the village of Wadi Foquin and one Israeli–at a briefing in Washington, D.C. […]

Former Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace George Mitchell has praised a settlement industrial zone as a “glimmers of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation.” Last week Mitchell cited a SodaStream factory in the Mishor Adumim area of Ma’ale Adumim near Jerusalem, which he visited on a previous delegation, as a shining example of joint Israeli-Palestinian economic projects. […]

Israel is reaping the benefits of a sweet deal it struck at the start of the peace process: release a token amount of Palestinian prisoners, and continue gobbling up the West Bank. On the same evening that 26 Palestinian prisoners were released over the objections of Israeli Jewish citizens, the Israeli Interior Ministry announced that […]

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